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President Trump Signs Music Modernization Act

Kid Rock and other artists attend White House ceremony

Musicians are getting paid. President Donald Trump signed the Music Modernization Act today. The bill, which overhauls the way music is licensed and songwriters are compensated, won bipartisan support in Congress and is backed by the music industry.

“As we celebrate the harmony and unity that got us here, we applaud the efforts of the thousands of performers, songwriters, and studio professionals who rallied for historic change to ensure all music creators are compensated fairly when their work is used by digital and satellite music services,” said Recording Academy President & CEO Neil Portnow in a statement.

The legislation creates a new independent entity that will license songs to companies that play music online. The nonprofit collective will then pay songwriters, including those who wrote pre-1970s classics before music copyrights protected their work. Read more about it in our explainer here.

Kid Rock, Mike Love of the Beach Boys and country singer John Rich were among the musicians on-hand during the White House ceremony. You can watch it below.